Large apple crop forecast
The Washington apple industry expects to harvest a record 108.8 million boxes of fresh apples this fall. That’s six million boxes more than during the 2009-2010 season that just ended, but only slightly more than the 108.3 million boxes shipped two years ago.

Bibaum (divided trunk) pears are grown at the Ferrara fruit research station in Italy

Fruit growers who adopt a spindle style of tree—tall, narrow cylinder shapes—believe the resulting fruiting walls will lend themselves to mechanization and lower their labor costs, with pruning and harvesting being done by workers on mobile [...]

A new CA control system supplied by Storage Control Systems, Sparta, Michigan, was installed at Michigan State University in 2008. Employee Dan Boozer is pictured. The new lab contains individual cabinets in which small lots of fruit can be held under tightly controlled conditions.

John Baker, center, talks with supermarket staff in Dubai, a major market for Washington apples.

The Washington Apple Commission is running a training ­program for supermarkets in export markets to help retailers boost their sales of Washington apples and to ensure that consumers receive a high-quality product.

Walla Walla County in the southeastern corner of what is now Washington State is credited with having the first commercial apple orchard in Washington. In 1855, Ransom Clark filed a claim on a 640-acre tract, the first such claim under the provisions of [...]